The technology relates to a vehicle front-wheel turning control apparatus that turns a left front wheel and a right front wheel of a vehicle when the vehicle and an object that is present ahead of the vehicle come into contact with each other.
Various apparatuses have been developed and are being brought into wide use that automatically avoid contact between a vehicle and an object (a forward object) that is present ahead of the vehicle. The forward object may be, for example, another vehicle. However, it has not been possible yet to avoid the contact between the vehicle and the forward object in all cases. Under this situation, an apparatus has been developed that applies braking force to wheels of the vehicle when the vehicle and the forward object come into contact with each other or when it is unavoidable for the vehicle and the forward object to come into contact with each other. As such an apparatus, reference is made to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) (JP-T) No. 2012-505118 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2016-2834, for example. Referring to JP-T No. 2012-505118, an automatic braking apparatus identifies a contact position of a vehicle with respect to an object. When the vehicle comes into contact with the object in a region ahead of the vehicle, the automatic braking apparatus executes braking that is delayed compared to braking to be performed when the vehicle comes into contact with the object in a region in the rear of the vehicle. Referring to JP-A No. 2016-2834, when a vehicle and a forward object come into contact with each other in a state that the vehicle and the forward object are shifted from each other in a width direction, i.e., when so-called offset contact between the vehicle and the forward object occurs, an automatic braking control apparatus suppresses rotation of the vehicle by applying greater braking force to at least one wheel on side opposite to side on which the vehicle comes into contact with the forward object than to other wheels.